"Scientists have traditionally ignored such mysteries, deeming matters of literary creativity too intangible, subjective, and ultimately untestable for serious study. But in The Midnight Disease, instructor in neurology Alice W. Flaherty '85, M.D. '94, seeks to elevate the scientific study of creativity—defined as the production of novel and valuable things—by arguing that literary inspiration, writer's block, and the drive to write all stem from interactions among, and changes within, particular brain regions."